Bobby Jindal-backed education bills near the final bell in Louisiana Legislature

A vast expansion of charter schools, an overhaul of teacher tenure and establishment of a statewide program to pay private school tuition with public dollars moved within one step of final passage Thursday, as the Louisiana Senate Education Committee endorsed the headliner components of Gov. Bobby Jindal's education agenda without changes or dissent.

House Bills 974 and 976, both sponsored by Rep. Steve Carter, R-Baton Rouge, are likely to come up on the Senate floor next week. Should the full Senate forgo amendments, Jindal could be in a position to sign the bills before Easter, roughly a month after the Republican governor unveiled the bills and less than three weeks after lawmakers convened for their annual session.

Senate Minority Leader Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte, was among those who did not object Thursday, though he voted against the same measures when the committee heard the Senate version of the Jindal bills earlier this month. LaFleur said earlier this week that pushing amendments or raising objections at the committee level "would be futile." He predicted some of his colleagues would attempt amendments on the Senate floor, though the administration is positioned to block them.

Senate changes to the bills would require House reconsideration, a move that would not threaten final passage but would delay the declaration of victory for the governor. The bills have the same implementation date regardless of when Jindal signs them.

Their support notwithstanding, Republican senators questioned a Jindal aide and state Superintendent John White about the developing teacher evaluation system that includes new teacher tenure rules, while tying teacher pay to student performance. The lawmakers said they hear concerns from classroom teachers, though the hearing room and the surrounding Capitol hallways were largely quiet for the afternoon session, a stark contrast to the initial hearings for the bills, when several thousand education employees filled the hearing room to overflow and the front steps in protest.

The general premise of the tenure bill -- HB 974 -- is that job protection and salary structure should be tied directly to an evaluation concept that lawmakers approved during Jindal's first term. That system, which is being piloted this year and is not final, bases half of a teacher's job rating on a principal's evaluation and half on a "value-added" components that turn on student test scores and other metrics.

Teachers would have to be rated "highly effective" five out of six years to receive tenure and could be deposed any year they receive an "ineffective" rating. The state estimates that about 10 percent of teachers will fall in the highest category, with another 10 percent in the lower. The rest would likely be rated "effective."

The bill also generally empowers superintendents in personnel decisions and changes due process considerations to allow teacher dismissals before hearings.

Sen. Mike Walsworth, R-West Monroe, told White that some teachers are concerned that their job and pay will depend on "whether two or three Johnnies have a good or bad test day."

White stood by the concept of a value-added evaluation system, which he said will not simply give teachers marks based on absolute test scores. Rather, the formula for teachers whose students take standardized tests will consider what the group -- based on past performance, socioeconomic status, behavior and attendance records -- could be expected to do. All teachers are expected to have their students show improvement, White said, but the calculation will consider "how much improvement should be expected."

He said the state Department of Education provides a database of sample questions on standardized tests to allow teachers to measure progress throughout the school year.

Jindal policy adviser Stafford Palmieri also highlighted to senators a House floor amendment that delays until the 2013-14 school year the results of the evaluations to a teacher's job status. That would effectively make 2012-13 a statewide pilot year for the new system.

Besides the evaluation system, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan again argued that Jindal's changes do not give teachers adequate due process. Current tenure law does not preclude firing a teacher, but it grants a hearing before a school board can dismiss a teacher.

The new law allows the superintendent to make that call, with a subsequent appeal hearing in front a three-person panel: the superintendent (or designee), the principal and another teacher of the fired teacher's choosing. Monaghan said that is not an effective appeal.

A deposed teacher's next venue would be the state court system, though LFT lobbyist Mary Patricia Wray said the bill does not ensure that the dismissal process would create an evidentiary record for a teacher to use on appeal. That, she said, suggests that state court proceedings, which would lean heavily on the school system's record, would be stacked against the teacher.